Science and Technology Group

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June Meeting: Prof Stephen Devereux, CAR(T)s, BiTes, checkpoints and weaponised antibodies: How immunology is transforming the treatment of blood cancer.

June 21st

Every year over 30,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with blood cancer and there are more than 12,000 deaths making it the 5th most common cancer overall and the 3rd commonest cause of cancer death. In this talk Prof Devereux will describe how the treatment of blood cancer has evolved over the last 50 years, from re-purposed chemical weapons to precision medicines designed to target abnormal pathways and cells.

He will pay particular attention to treatments that harness the immune system, as this is an area of particular progress that has the potential to transform the outlook for patients. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell Therapy, or CAR-T therapy is a technique for creating T-cells that are genetically engineered to produce special receptors on their surface to recognize specific targeted tumor cells.These receptors are the Chimeric Antigen Receptors. The advantage of this treatment is that the cells, because they are accepted by the patients own immune system, can remain in the body for an extended period and provide extended protection against recurrence of the disease.

These exciting advances are, however, accompanied by new challenges. Existing drug development, evaluation and regulatory pathways are relatively slow and this, combined with funding constraints, can delay introduction into clinical practice. Prof Devereux will argue that both new thinking and new money are going to be required to solve these problems.

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2017 Programme

Dates for 2017 are as follows (all meeting are on Wednesdays, usually the 3rd one of each month):

Month Day of Month Speaker Title
February 15th Prof Martyn Thomas Cybersecurity
March 15th Prof Anil Seth Machine Consciousness
April 19th Prof Peter Wilson Anti-Microbial Resistance.
May 16th, Dr Giles Yeo Are your genes to blame if your jeans don't fit?
June 21st Prof Stephen Devereux CAR(T)s, BiTes, checkpoints and weaponised antibodies.
September 20th Dr Paolo Tasca Bitcoins and the Blockchain
October 18th Prof J A Madrigal Stem cell therapies.
November 22nd [TBC] Dr Uday Phadke How to give Tech Businesses Scale

2018 Programme

Dates for 2018 are as follows (usually 3rd Wed of each month):

Month Day of Month Speaker Title
February 21st
March 14th
April 25th
May 23rd
June 20th
September 11th
October 24th
November 28th